


Mistletoe

by orphan_account



Category: Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: Christmas fic, F/M, Gen, Multi, Pre-Invasion, i'm such a canon pairing whore lol
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-12-25
Updated: 2012-12-25
Packaged: 2017-11-22 10:32:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,561
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/608876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Their first Christmas as a team entails kissing, a blown mission and overzealous sweaters.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Mistletoe

**Author's Note:**

> Originally for the fic exchange on tumblr. It's cutesy and seasonal and completely different than what I usually write but then again it's also cute and seasonal and whatever. Happy holidays kids.

The first Christmas the Team spent together was memorable in a lot of ways. Someone got smooched, an argument broke out, M'gann knitted sweaters for everyone (and some people even wore theirs) and oddest of all, Roy enjoyed himself.

The story starts with Artemis Crock. Artemis was not exactly a holly jolly type. Yet, somehow Artemis was wearing a sweater with a Christmas tree on it. It was honestly horrendous and oversized to the point of her wearing leggings underneath as it's basically a dress. Or a tent. She wore it only because it made M'gann quite happy. Except, M'gann had ditched her to hang off Conner's arm and giggle at something he was saying. Artemis quickly declared her a traitor and headed to the table of desserts.

"You actually wore it?" Zatanna slouched on the nearest couch, a plate of cookies levitating beside her. Her hair sat in a bun atop her head, and on top of the hair itself sat a cute headband with a sprig of something attached. Unlike Artemis, Zatanna favored Christmas. It was cheesy and commercialized, but she liked it in an almost satirical way. She liked buying cheesy cards and watching the movies with the too-happy endings, not because she had much faith in any of those ideals but because a world like that seemed practically like another world in itself.

"Yes," Artemis said darkly before plucking a macaroon off the table. Zatanna smirked, entirely too pleased. The magician knew that her friend was not a big supporter of the holidays. Artemis scoffed. "Look, you're the one with parsley on your head."

"It's mistletoe, y'know in the spirit of the holiday," Zatanna explained. Artemis stared at the younger girl blankly. Her friend paused before continuing, her expression mildly disbelieving, "Y'know... 'Santa Claus and ho-ho-ho, and mistletoe and presents to pretty girls'."

"So it's like a Christmas thing?" Artemis summarized, completely missing the reference of Zatanna's last statement. She shrugged as if she didn't understand the point of it - which admittedly, she did not. At Zatanna's shocked look, Artemis tossed her arms up. "We didn't really do Christmas at my house, so whatever you're trying to get me to get, it's not happening."

"What's not happening?" If Artemis hadn't been so offset by Zatanna's shock, she would have heard the speedster hustle to her side. The boy was described by many terms, but quiet was never one. At his statement, she rolled her eyes before looking at him. 

It is to be noted that Wally was and is and always will be a believer in Christmas. There's people who like Christmas, who enjoy it and the perks of it. Then there's another type of person, the Wally sort, if you will. Wally and his family had two advent calendars, a Christmas tree - and a real one that they cut down two days after Thanksgiving every year - and an assortment of Christmas lights strung throughout their house. In short, the West house was that house. 

With this in mind, it is not rude to say that his outfit was truly atrocious; a sweater not unlike Artemis's own but with Santa's face embroidered on it, reindeer antlers atop his head and worst of all, a string of Christmas lights looped around his arms and shoulders. The effect was startling.

"C'mon, what'd I miss?" he asked again, all eager and bright. The holidays brought out a special perk in Wally's step, although we may assume some of this perk may have been from seeing Artemis. It's open to interpretation. His eyes rested solely on Artemis, who did not answer the question. Zatanna jumped in, meaning half to help and half to tease, a usual ratio for nearly all of her actions.

"Artemis is being a total Scrooge - I just wasted a stellar Charlie Brown reference on her!" Zatanna pointed accusingly at her friend. Wally's eyebrows raised nearly to the top of his head. Artemis groaned, knowing the worst was yet to come. 

"Wait, have you not seen Charlie Brown Christmas?" When Artemis shakes her head, the poor boy is personally offended by the catastrophe. "Well, what about Rudolph? A Christmas Story? It's a Wonderful Life? White Christmas? National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation?"

 

Every time she shook her head - and she did at each movie title - Wally's voice became louder and more distressed. While he was shocked by her inexperience in the matters of Christmas, the truth is Wally honestly found it endearing. Which led to almost laughter in his tone and Artemis heard it as mocking. Now, by this time in their friendship or relationship or whatever you prefer to call it, Wally was over mocking the girl for most things. However, the pair were both quite ignorant of each other's feelings. So Artemis took this reaction wrong and finally, Artemis can no longer take it.

"No, no to all of them! I didn't watch Christmas movies or make cocoa with my parents or hang tinsel on the tree, okay? Forget it." Artemis moved to walk away, fuming, but Wally intercepted her. Though she would never admit it, a part of her was hoping he would do something more dramatic to stop her. In reality, he grabbed the ends of the arms of her sweater - they trailed so far past her actual hands - and halted her.

"Artemis, c'mon, I'm teasing. Please don't be mad, it's Christmas." He laughed a little still and her resolve softened. His hands remained wrapped around the ends of the sweater and to anyone else they looked ridiculous. Sweet and perhaps like a couple, but ridiculous, in their oversized sweaters and secretive smiles meant only for each other. 

"It's actually December 10. But I'll allow it." Artemis bit her lip before tugging her sweater sleeves away from Wally. "Y'know Zatanna was explaining to me what mistletoe is for. Well, sort of."

"Shall I demonstrate?" Wally asked, his grin too wide for Artemis to feel comfortable. Had she known what it was for - which, she would later admit, she should have known - the archer would have agreed. Instead she shook her head and Wally shrugged.

"It's simple, Artemis. With mistletoe, you-" It was a full-on kiss and Zatanna was not at all prepared. She had expected a kiss on the cheek or a peck. Instead, Wally truly went for it. His hands framed her face and her arms automatically gripped his shoulders for balance. He released her as quickly as he dove for the kiss and Zatanna nearly toppled over. Smirking, Wally turned back to Artemis. "You just kiss them."

Artemis gaped at him, open-mouthed, for a moment before bursting into laughter. Wally, who barely managed to keep a straight face to finish his prior statement, nearly crumpled onto the floor from laughter and Zatanna joined the pair's amusement once she adjusted to the shock.   
The only one not amused was Dick Grayson. He had prior been on a mission of minor importance - another interesting tale to be told - with Roy. Of course, timing being what it is, he showed up just as Wally disengaged from Zatanna's lips.

Before we get to reactions from any of those, it is important to note that Dick Grayson, while usually good humored, had been tugged to the end of his rope. The mission had gone badly, at least in his opinion.

Roy Harper had been in a good mood. He liked the holidays well enough, but he liked missions more. This was an easy enough mission, simply keep a thief away from a nice rack of weaponry. Unfortunately, someone with their own nice rack showed up and foiled those plans.

"You're the thief after these things?" Roy asked incredulously as Cheshire dangled above him from a skylight. Dick was on patrol, around some other corner.

"No," Cheshire answered mysteriously. She pushed her mask up and hopped down. Roy was, as usual, surprised by her height. Or rather the lack thereof. For all her attitude and flair the woman was only about five foot tall - a fact he would never grow entirely familiar with. The assassin smirked up at him.

"So what, you're just here for the holidays?" He managed, as the woman stepped closer to him. Even the simplest movement, such as a step, was intimidating with her. He swallowed hard when she shook her head.

"I don't really do holidays. Never have, probably never will." Cheshire was so close Roy smelled her perfume. Later, he would remember that scent, the stupidity of how girly it was and how it hurt somehow. To think that someone gave it to her, but moreover he was upset at the fact that it hurt him to think that. She breathed deep, as if to prepare for something. "Want to tell me your Christmas present, Red?"

When he didn't answer, Cheshire laughed. It was gentler than he would have expected, and perhaps gentler than she meant for it to be. Something, though she would not admit it, about the archer softened her around the edges. Put her a bit more at ease than she'd like, nearly sloppy if she'd let herself be.

"There really is one. I pegged you for a sap about Christmas, thought I'd support that."

"I'm not." Roy responded shortly. The assassin simply shrugged.

"So not a fan of holiday cheer," Cheshire teased. "But what if I gave you your thief gift-wrapped?"

"I'd question your motives and what it would cost me." Roy countered. It was a reasonable question, even Cheshire would have to admit.

"I'm feeling generous. Just a simple kiss," Cheshire grinned. The entire thing was a joke to her. Not necessarily Roy or his conflicted feelings on her - even this early on, he was trying and failing to not fall for her - but the scenario of the two of them so against each other. She knew, better than Roy who struggled to accept this, that the two of them were incredibly similar. Built the same.

"You're kidding." Roy chuckled, until Cheshire tossed her arms around his shoulders. He froze.

"You're stalling. C'mon, I even brought this stupid mistletoe" Cheshire sounded pleased, almost proud of herself, as she held a piece of mistletoe in her glove. She dangled it in the archer's face for a moment, before dropping her hand on his shoulder. Roy realized she was bluffing; the woman assumed he wouldn't take the bait. Except Roy hated that; the way she seemed to know him so well. So without another thought, he closed the gap between them.

His lips met hers and by all accounts it was a nearly average kiss. Had they been two different people, perhaps it would have only been a kiss and nothing more. But Roy was the sort of man who struggled to let go of things and Cheshire was the sort of woman who kept her distance until she found someone truly interesting. Somehow this worked together and they found themselves in each other, but that came later. For now, this was merely a normal kiss, albeit a good one.

"Red Arrow!" A shout interrupted the pair and Roy stumbled back. He spat out a few curses quietly, half at the interruption and half at his own actions. Cheshire grinned and slipped the mask back on before stepping away lightly.

"You've got lipstick on you, Red. Take care." Cheshire pirouetted away, nearly out of the room before adding: "the thief's on the roof, by the way."

"Cheshire!" Roy shouted hoarsely. Oddly enough she paused at the shout. "Merry Christmas."

There was no reply, but years later he'd swear he saw her wink at him through that damn mask. As Dick stood by, half shell-shocked, Roy headed up to the roof. Tied up and hanging upside down from a electrical post was a large man. He looked incredibly scared and Roy smiled to himself. 

Now, Dick Grayson felt no one way about the holidays. Some were nice but others were nearly painful. This holiday had started out wonderful but seemed to be slipping to the other extreme.   
Prior to the mission, he had picked out perfect gifts for nearly everyone. Especially a certain young magician, whom he had a mild to moderate crush on. Dick had even been excited for the mission; he liked Roy and they made an easy team. It shouldn't have required much effort.   
Except Cheshire had shown up and poked holes in that, which upset him. Then he'd walked in to find Wally liplocked with Zatanna. The day had taken a definite nose dive.

"Rob, c'mon, it was a joke." Wally trailed after the other boy as he stalked towards the other side of the room. Robin was close to fuming when someone else made him pause.

"Seriously, Boy Wonder, you think anyone would kiss Wally by choice?" Artemis called after him. Of course we know the true irony of this, but even Dick recognized the humor of it. He stopped and looked back at Wally, laughing. The older teen rolled his eyes at the remark. After a moment, Dick headed back to where the two girls stood, a bit sheepishly. Zatanna blushed at something Artemis had muttered under her breath and as Dick - with Wally in toe - approached Zatanna elbowed Artemis in the gut. Dick opened his mouth to ask, but Zatanna cut him off.

"She's just being inappropriate, ignore her." Zatanna said this with a breathy laugh and Artemis cackled, looking beyond Dick to Wally. If there was ever a moment for the four of them to freeze on, it was this. 

They looked ridiculous: Artemis and Wally overly Christmas-ified, Zatanna with crumbs on her shirt and a blush on her cheeks, Dick with the sweat from the mission still on his back. Yet it was them, before all the bad bits came along and marred it. No one took a photo for them, but there was never a need. It was a moment they would not need to look back on because it was like so many moments to come over the next year or so. It was entirely ordinary, albeit with a holiday flair, and there was something about that none of the four appreciated.

"So, how dead is Meg for making you wear that?" Dick asked Artemis, who groaned.

"Beyond dead. I'm thinking flipping everything in her and Supes rooms upside down, if anyone cares to join me," the archer said with a grin. Wally made a lewd comment about M'gann's room and Artemis jumped on that, the pair in mid argument before Zatanna or Dick could even fathom stopping them. As the speedster and the archer walked off, presumably to trash Superboy's room, Zatanna stopped Dick from following.

"I'm afraid I can't let you go just yet," the magician pulled herself closer to him. She grinned before closing any gap between them, explaining with a single word. "Mistletoe."  
Across the room, Kaldur stared hard at Roy, who was blatantly ignoring this. Kaldur was Roy's best friend. They were, more or less, brothers. Which meant that Roy regretted greeting the other boy, as he wasn't feeling very forthcoming about the Cheshire fiasco and Kaldur was quite good at picking up on such things.

"My friend, I do not mean to intrude but you have lipst-"

"Damn it," Roy pawed at his face for a moment, as Kaldur raised his eyebrows questioningly. "Fucking mistletoe."


End file.
